Too Late to Challenge the Modern Obesity Epidemic?

Abstract

Evidence of obesity has been found in artifacts dating from as long as 35,000 years ago. In contrast, the present-day pandemic is an unprecedented development, perhaps related to the fundamental socioeconomic and environmental changes of the latter half of the twentieth century. These changes altered the nature of the human diet, with the food chain itself undergoing a radical transformation, not least due to the growth and dominance of agribusiness conglomerates. These global corporations have spurred monoculture, mass production, mass distribution, and mass marketing strategies that drive mass consumption, itself contributing to increasing overweight and obesity prevalence. Not confined solely to “developed” economies, the modern epidemic of obesity is also a marker for progressive population-wide weight gain. The significance of consequential noncommunicable disease risks, which demand a comprehensive societal response, was acknowledged in the UN General Assembly resolution on prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in 2011. But approaching a decade after the adoption of WHO’s global strategy on diet, activity, and health, it is high time to call to account those governments, agencies, and corporate stakeholders, which have done little more than pay lip service to its implementation, ignoring the need for urgent action to improve nutrition and address the obesity challenge. For an increasingly high proportion of the child and adult population, it may already be too late.